In The Press

If you spend enough time in racing yards or sales yards, pilule you may notice a figure in the background. He’s a tall, site solidly built man with dark hair, a moustache and frequently sporting a pair of dark glasses. He’s usually discretely positioned...

WATCHING from afar, diagnosis you see a man and a horse. They appear to be engaged in some sort of slow dance. The man shuffles his feet back and forth while the horse walks in circles around him, occasionally breaking out into a leisurely...

ACTOR Robert Redford endeared himself to millions of moviegoers around the world when he starred as Tom Booker in his self-directed, 1998 feature film The Horse Whisperer. By hook or by crook, the award-winning drama also served to popularise the term ‘Horse Whispering’ as...

THE sight of a horse refusing to get into a float, nervously sweating and kicking out in the parade ring or backing out of the starting stalls is all too familiar at race tracks around the country. But some Cape trainers have found a...

A crazy horse called Zarp turned dominee Malan Du Toit into a horse whisperer. The horse, treat which Du Toit bought 11 years ago, purchase was uncontrollable. But for two years Du Toit worked with him, trying to understand and train the animal. It...

THEY say that horses can’t be too intelligent if they allow people to sit on their backs for more than a split second. But they can communicate though body language. American Monty Roberts was the first man to popularise talking and listening to horses,...

SOMETIMES horses have moods, just like children; others are suspicious and have a sad expression in the eyes… almost like ill-treated children. It is not everybody who is capable of fixing these broken souls, as Malan du Toit of Joostenbergvlakte, Western Cape, will testify....

DOMINEE Malan Du Toit of the Maitland Reformed Church spends a lot of time at Cape Town’s racing stables. But his congregation can rest assured he’s not there to pick up racing tips from the horse’s mouth. His job is to talk horse sense...